Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, who was shot several times on Wednesday, is out of danger but still needs intensive care, Deputy Prime Minister Robert Kalinak revealed.
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, who was shot several times on Wednesday, is out of danger, but still needs intensive care, Deputy Prime Minister Robert Kalinak revealed today, four days after the attack on the head of government.
“There is no longer any immediate danger to his life, but his condition remains serious,” Kalinak told local media.
Robert Kalinak, Fico’s closest political ally, added that despite the good news, the Slovak Prime Minister still needs intensive care. The politician underwent a five-hour operation on Wednesday and a shorter one on Friday, both in a hospital in the city of Banska Bystrica, in central Slovakia.
Robert Fico, 59, was shot several times Wednesday as he left a government meeting in the town of Handlová.
On Saturday, the court in Pezinok, a small town on the outskirts of the capital, Bratislava, ordered the suspect’s pre-trial detention. The suspect was charged with attempted premeditated murder and could face 25 years to life in prison.
Prosecutors asked police not to publicly identify the suspect or reveal other details about the case, but unconfirmed media reports say he was a 71-year-old retired man, known as an amateur poet, who had worked as a security guard. security. of a shopping center in the southwest of the country.
Government authorities have since provided details matching this description. They said the suspect did not belong to any political group, although the attack itself was politically motivated. World leaders have already condemned the attack and offered support to Fico and Slovakia.
Fico, who has served as prime minister since his centrist party, Smer-SD, won legislative elections last fall, has long been a controversial figure in Slovakia and beyond.
His return to power last year, on a pro-Russian, anti-American platform, led members of the European Union and NATO to worry that he would abandon the country’s pro-Western path, especially in relation to Ukraine. This assassination attempt deeply shocked Slovakia, a country of 5.4 million inhabitants, a member of the European Union and NATO, which has been deeply politically divided for years.
Source: Observadora
